Some Gold Bird Ornaments Falcon or Wryneck?

Abstract

An enquiry which seemed simple enough at the outset, has developed alarmingly in the course of investigation and now covers a wide field which can only be briefly indicated in this note. It concerns seven ornaments in all, two of which have long been in the possession of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden; the other five were excavated by Sir Flinders Petrie and his staff for the British School of Egyptian Archaeology at Tell el-Ajjul, south of Gaza, between 1930–52, and are now dispersed in various museums (see Fig. 1 and Plates XXI–XXII).From the time of discovery onwards, the bird represented on the Ajjul ornaments was described as a falcon, and there seemed no reason to question it. But many years later, Miss Sylvia Benton suggested to me – on seeing the Ajjul gold ornaments – that the craftsman intended to represent a wryneck jynx torquilla. It is only recently that I have had the opportunity to explore the possibility further. This paper is the result of that enquiry. Furthermore, I would like to suggest that the bird portrayed on Tutankhamen's earrings is the same bird as on the examples found at Tell el-Ajjul, whatever that may prove to be. The authors of the catalogues accompanying the exhibition of these treasures on view in Paris (1967) and in London (1972) did not commit themselves as to the identity of the bird.